Negaunee, Michigan, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Negaunee, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Negaunee lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Negaunee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Negaunee — the short answer
Negaunee, Michigan: USDA zone 4b, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 4b is Negaunee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Negaunee's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Negaunee
Each reading below is measured for Negaunee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNegaunee runs about 144 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNegaunee sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Negaunee is in
Negaunee sits in the Northern Lakes and Forests — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northern Forests. That is read at Negaunee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marquette County.
What Grows in Negaunee
Every plant below cleared Negaunee's own zone 4b and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Michigan profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Negaunee?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Negaunee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Negaunee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MI DEPT/TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Makis Standard ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Buck's Party Store IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- City Of Negaunee WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- OSI ENVIRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- KIRKLAND BLDGSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- Toivo's AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Northern Electric AutomotiveUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Leiviskin Brothers.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Babco Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Leafs AutoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Lacosse Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Negaunee's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Negaunee.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Negaunee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Negaunee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Negaunee, Mining runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Negaunee. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Negaunee
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Negaunee average
Your land is one point inside Negaunee
Everything above resolves to Negaunee as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at city scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Negaunee Average
Negaunee Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across Negaunee
- ●One soil character for all of Negaunee
- ●Frost dates read at Negaunee's scale: May 16 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Negaunee's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Negaunee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Negaunee, Michigan — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Negaunee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Negaunee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Negaunee average
How we know this about Negaunee
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Negaunee’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Negaunee
When does frost risk typically end in Negaunee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Negaunee typically lands around May 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about Jun 6.
When is the first frost in Negaunee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Negaunee typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Negaunee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Negaunee sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 23, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Negaunee?
The federal record around Negaunee is a meaningful one — 417 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (187), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Negaunee?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Negaunee rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Negaunee's scale — its 4b band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Negaunee's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Negaunee’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Negaunee's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,604 acres it covers and 417 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Negaunee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Negaunee's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Oct 7 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 417 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Negaunee, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Negaunee's boundary and the 8,604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Negaunee's own centroid, the Northern Lakes and ForestsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Negaunee's 8,604 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marquette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marquette County
- The growing challenges every Michigan grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Michigan
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Marquette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Negaunee's 8,604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Negaunee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,604 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Negaunee-wide figureread your own land →
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